[Victorian Era Papier-Mache Mother of Pearl Binding] The Keepsake

[Victorian Era Papier-Mache Mother of Pearl Binding] 

The Keepsake: A Gift for the Holidays

Publication: 1851 J.C. Riker; New York

Beautiful example of the lavish mother-of-pearl inlaid papier-mâché bindings produced during the brief American vogue for increasingly elaborate book decoration in the early 1800's. As noted by the Library Company of Philadelphia such bindings appeared on American books for only a short period, approximately 1850–1855, representing one of the most ambitious and visually distinctive experiments in Victorian publisher's bindings. The work itself was issues as a holiday gift annual and contains numeroius engraved plates and poems.

The present volume is bound in black lacquered papier-mache, decorated in gilt and hand painted floral motifs, embellished with mother-of-pearl inlays. Undoubletebly a remarkable binding. 

Rubbing to the extremities, a few mother-of-pearl inlays lacking at the corners, boards with scuffing, moderate to heavy foxing to the steel engravings and throughout the text leaves. Overall in Very Good condition